Lots of fun promised at Oxmarket music night at Chichester Fringe 2022

Chris Fowell is MC for the night and also one half of double-act Marchesi & Fowell who will be offering the new musical Fringin' Around.

Other acts include Stuart Ironside inviting you to explore music outside the Western canon, bringing together melodies and arrangements as well as his own compositions; Jacob Palmer presenting Jungle Boy, a fusion of classical, jazz and soul blended into one retrospective pot; and Rachel Hogarth performing a medley of diverse songs from all genres. Tickets from www.chichesterfringe.co.uk.

Chris, like his comedy partner Max Marchesi, is a graduate of the University of Chichester “We met at university in the first year. I have just finished musical theatre and cabaret. He started on musical theatre and moved over to cabaret in his second year. We were friends and when he joined the course I was on in the second year, we became closer and started doing comedy routines. We just started off being two people that didn't take anything seriously and then took the opportunities to work together. The show Fringin' Around is just a play on words on the idea of the fringe.

“The show is partly our story through university and how we met and progressed through university through the three years and all the things that happened like Covid. We were part way through the year and then ended up at home. There’s quite a funny story about me and Max during one of the online lessons playing on our Xbox because we didn't have to show our faces!

“We both graduated this year. I am in Chichester until the end of August because my tenancy is a long one. He has gone back to London and I think it's one of those things that if we did get the opportunity for us to do something together again, we probably would. He is currently a performer at Thorpe Park and I'm going in a different direction to that really. Singing is my strong hand and I also do magic so I'm going down the route of being a lead singer and entertainer, I should think.”

Inevitably and sadly, Chris feels a little bit short-changed by his university experience: “There was a petition where there were thousands of students signing saying that they would like some sort of money back because they're all paying out £9,000 and more each year and really I only got one full year. But the petition was a lost cause.”

In the first year they got through into March and then went back home; the second year didn't start until the December; the third year was more normal but there were still guidelines in place. And as he says his parents didn't get to see him perform in the course cabaret show between the February of 2020 and the May of 2022, more than two years.

But the upshot perhaps is that Chris and his fellow students will be all more resilient: “I do think all the difficulties make you all the more determined.”